Consider this the more official version of March’s post regarding the whereabouts of William Phan, the Quartersnacks office’s unanimous choice for “#1 Skater From the 2000s Who We Wish Didn’t Fade Into Obscurity.” And add it to the routine praise of Lordz’ 2003 classic, They Don’t Give a Fuck About Us, which is a direct inspiration for this re-edit, mostly by way of music supervision.

Last time around, we dwelled on Phan’s exceptional flatground abilities, but it should be noted that he is also perhaps the only great slow skater. For us normal people, skating slow is obviously a result of not being comfortable enough with a certain trick / every trick, thus making it impossible for stuff to look good. But for a guy who’s recent approach to skating has been reported as “Still skating in Barcelona every day, doesn’t give a shit,” his apathetic, couldn’t-be-bothered way of masterfully riding a board makes a ton of sense. It is a bit more apparent in the post-Lordz footage than in that debut part though. Consult the video below.

The footage comes from the Lordz video (omg obvs), Phan’s shared part with Baptiste Myzor in the 2005 Square video (unfortunately available online in not-the-best compression, so you’ll notice some rippling throughout the footage), and random clips from his filmer’s Vimeo page. 2002-2007ish. Have a good weekend.

The early 90s signified the biggest change skateboarding has ever gone through and became the defining principle of what it meant to skateboard. Since then, the pros of the early 90s have managed to rule over skateboarding since they turned it into what it is today. In the early 2000s a few new faces had emerged but still, the ruling pros, the ones who became the owners of companies, the people who say how things are, the people who say who is going to be what, the now establishment, are still those young guys who turned skateboarding on its head over 20 years ago. The chokehold my generation has had for all this time, however, is now slowly starting to loosen its grip on the throat of all those people who dream of coming up and taking their places. It’s happening, the new faces are emerging more than the old ones are sticking around. It’s an exciting time, some may be bittersweet, but the clock cannot be stopped from ticking. Our hope is that our Recruits someday, maybe 20 years from now, face the same challenges every generation faces with the influx of new faces and talent who do things we only dreamed of. — sb